Archive for December 2011

Greetings from the user-friendly universe of Southern California.After discovering the God Molecule, flying a Russian MiG-29 at Mach 2 and Taking A World Cruise in Zero Gravity- there is something extraordinary about being an "Ordinary People", a mere civilian again; mearly walking in L.A. It's so post September 11th, so pedestrian.

Planes are like diets. I don't like being on them,

If God had really intended men to fly, he'd make it easier to pick people up at the airport

How to predict weather in Seattle: If you can see Mt Ranier, it's going to rain. If not , it already is.

﻿ ﻿ ﻿Aloha to No rain. No rainbows ...Passing through the Pacific Northwest. People don't age, they rust.

After Monday and Tuesday, all that's left in Seattle is W T F, eh?

August 17th, I wrote:

﻿ ﻿

Come as you are

It's all sunshine and khaki dress down Wednesday in the rainy city.This little strip of land really was the epicenter for the anti-hair bands of the 1980's era. I feel nostalgic about the road rules of dirty+beautiful =Grunge.Opting out, not caring about your clothes, the kind of car you drive.Guy-linered Curt Cobain said it best " I'd rather be h8d for who I am than loved for who I am not.

35th floor of Hotel Sheraton

﻿

Seahawks Suck.Go Rams

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿ Treehugger-fruit-juiced-sandal wearing veganish Santa Monica Promenade's Farmer's Market is the Mini Me of Pike's Place Market - Pikes The gentrified Dr Evil of fresh produce and fishmongers throwing around King Salmon and Crab are whirling dervishes who leave you as confused as a bunch of blind lesbians.

Blueberry Fields Forever at Hotel @nyware

﻿

﻿

No, let's take that back, You've got the sun, the moon and The Rolling Stones-Pikes Place Market is the Keith Richards of Farmer's Markets- It's over fifty years old and still going strong despite the usual wear and tear and years of decadence.

The Hero's Journey -Departure Inititation and now Returning-- As I go beyond following my bliss, there's nothing left to "see". I'm not screaming out like Zack Mayo in an Officer and a Gentleman-"I got nowhere else to go!" Instead, there is a someone else to be, like Chuck Noland in Cast Away discovers, stuck standing in the middle of a crossroads; finally accepting having been stripped of his old life, and suddenly finding himself not knowing his next move. And yet, that's ok.Refusal of the Return

Campbell describes- So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?.

My ship has been unmoored for so long, I don't know where to drop anchor. I thought it would be easy to resume the 2007 Aloha, and it was. I thought it would give back the comfort of the familiar. It has not.

Has it only been three weeks?

Return-The Road Back

Refusal of the ReturnSo why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?

The Magic FlightSometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.

Rescue from WithoutJust as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon.

The Crossing of the Return ThresholdThe trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.

Master of the Two WorldsIn myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.

Freedom to LiveMastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.

This is Pele,and I don't mean the Brazilian soccer pro, You've just been just been shot...by Peter Lik.watch At night the red glare was visible 7miles at sea as we used to sail past in the night to see the this force of nature, this slumbering volcano, wreathed in clouds, occasionally emitting smoke and fire; and me, like a soothsayer, attempted to interpret. The only thing I know is you can't win a Volcano.

I'm on the Big Island again after a 4 years break; on the west side, at the local Starbucks, for some Kona Joe, sitting with my friends cream and sugar. American coffee is "dirty water" and Instant coffee takes too long. Kona, however,is not a drug.It's a vitamin.

At ABC (Aloha Bring Cash), the merchants of Paradise-Sovenir kitsch, are the memes (thought viruses) for sale- from the hilariously romantic posters through the pseudo-scholarly to the infuriatingly racist postcards; from the noble savage literary school through Margaret Mead and all her comings of age, Somerset Maugham's puritan missionaries/drunks/and saintly whores and James Michener's rascals and golden people, to the stereotyped childlike pagan who needs to be steered to the Light....and it all starts with a tree...if I could only construct the remains of the day in such a fashion.

Life After Luau A good-bye is never painful unless you're never going to say hello again.Aloha Maui. Aloha Oahu. I know travel zoos are no longer in my good graces.Neither is eating on a cruise ship. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both. Life off the cruise ships ,however,isn't much of a culinary life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn't be more simple, nor the stakes higher. I have to pay for stuff...as in food stuffs. This is certainly different from the luaus and eat-what-you-kill safaris and big game fishing expeditions I took this year, where no matter where I was ,the stuffed animals on display all looked the same. Staged authenicity and First rule of cruise club-never miss a meal.Second rule-don't forget the first, and don't miss the 6pm all aboard. It has been predictable as an episode of Seinfeld. Yadi yada yada. No more choc-a-holic and midnight buffets. My favorite food on the ships had been Seconds! And the desserts. It was the life of pie. Playing the game of staged authenticity in the tourist themed spaces of Tahiti, Fiji et al.,while it was't the Mcdonald-ization of the South Pacific, it played more like a Disney animated feature film The Burger and The King featuring the fat Elvis belting out his own karaoke version of My Way like a good old hound dog with a few miles left.

The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off: Shoveling sunshine in paradise instead of snow in the mainland. No rain. No rainbows. No snow, however, no snowmen. There may be some frosted flakes here on the valley isle but no white Christmas'. No worries because I have found the good in goodbye to cold weather.All I want for Xmas is a sun tan.

The sum of my problems is the inability to sit quietly alone on a beach! It is easy to mistake motion for progress and no problem is so big and complicated that it cannot be run away from. I know what to do-swim with my friends the dolphins. Nothing Is The Hardest Thing To Do.

The Hawaiian's say-Never turn your back on the ocean. It makes sense to me.Somehow, the love of the islands, like the love of a woman, just happens. One cannot determine in advance to love a particular woman, nor can one so determine to love Hawaii.It is the land of big dreams, for both islanders and guests. Those dreams born in Paradise can, indeed, come true.

These flip flops have sailed around the world with me and I kiss the ground they walk on now here in Maui.

There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing., But In Hawaii, it doesn't take much. It's flip flops forever. There's Aloha Friday, and business casual--then there's extreme business casual. Going to work in flip flops. It's the closest thing to going barefoot and enjoying life.

Maui Grown is not a drug.It's a vitamin. Starbucks is karaoke coffee, a not so cheap imitation. Juan Valdez and Joe Kona better head for the hills. This is Handsome Coffee.You can take your coffee to go, but I recommend drinking in your coffee and the morning sitting out on the lanai.